Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-07-21
Ways of Chinese Children.

A popular Chinese game Is played
with a loaded cork bestuck with feath-
ers. The game is to keep the cork in
the air. The first player throws up
he shuttlecock and before it again
reaches the earth he twists his foot
and gives the descending object kick
with his heel which send it up into the
air, sometimes rs high as twenty feet.
When it descends again he tries to
keep it within range of his heel as long
as possible, but the play soon fails to
be exclusive; other boys standing
anxiously about manage to get kick
at it, sending il away from the first
player, who then joins the outsiders in
a general scramble to gain possession.
Sometimes in the heat of the play,
when the crowd is punched together,
the shuttlecock is struck by the hand,
but that is not allowable unless it is in
|. danger of reaching the ground before
the heel can strike it. Expert players
keep their hands in their sleeves, hit
ting the feathery object only with the
heel, and thus keeping it from the
ground for hours at a time.
Among Chinese toys there are odd
puzzles to be put together or strung
into certain shapes, gorgeous glass
marbles to roll about, balls with
strings attached, that they may not be
lost, and colored blocks with which to
build wonderful houses, bridges, and
towers; diminutive junks to pull about
on the floor, and toy mirrors in which
to scan small yellow features and mar
row black eyes. The abacus, or me-
chanical counter, is placed in the
hands of the youth at very early age,
and it is wonderful to Americans how
quickly mathematics are mastered in
this manner by little fellows hardly
knee-high.
There does not seem to be as much
of the make-believe among the child
ish players of Chinatown as there is
among white children. Although
joss appeals to their imagination,
dol is only a doll This may be ac-
counted for by the fact that about the
time when they would naturally begin
to take most interest in wax features
and sawduSt bodies their attention is
called to dolls of flesh and blood.
Hardly has the female Monaghan
fairly begun to steady herself in her
clumsy shoes when she is made a
saddle-horse for the month-old tots of
her own or some other family.
Among the Chinese, as among the
Christianized races, the small boy is
the master of the house. His tempers
and whims are waited on and INDUCED
in with great forbearance. But he
generally finds the limit to the endur-
ance of his fond parents, just as the
American small boy does, and then
there is the same resort to corporal
punishment. Instead of the slipper,
the strap, or the little birch, however,
a nice little stick of bamboo, kept in a
handy place for the purpose named, is
clutched at the thickest end by long
nailed fingers.
When kite-fying is to be considered,
the Chinese of any age are always
children. Old men take as keen de-
light in sailing paper dragons and
birds as boys of 10. But this does not
detract from the pleasure of the boys,
who unwind the kite-string and watch
their cherished toy float away with an
interest that flags not with each sue
cessive aerial fight.
Chinese boys from to II years of
age play an odd game with sticks of
wood about three feet long. A stick
is grasped near the middle and thrown
sideways, the object being to cross it
upon another stick lying upon the
ground.
When his son has attained the digni-
fled age of month the Chinese father,
with flourish of trumpets and a won
derful TODD, orders the performance
of the ceremonial of shaving the in
fant's head. If the father happens to
be man of means he gives a great
banquet.
Top-spinning is a favorite amuse-
ment, and in this the Chinese are ex-
perts. The length of time in which
they can keep the humming object in
motion is quite remarkable